Park & Pipe Continental Cup recap: European Cup 2024/25
Apr 16, 2025·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The 2025 European Cup season came to a spectacular close last week at Corvatsch (SUI), where athletes from around the world gathered for a packed week of slopestyle, big air, and halfpipe events in both Freeski and Snowboard. With sunny skies and a highly-motivated international field on hand, the event marked not only the final chance to collect valuable FIS points in the 2024/25 competition season, but also a crucial step on the road to Olympic qualification for Milano-Cortina 2026.
The Corvatsch season-ender saw the final European Cup competitions of a huge season in which 19 events successfully took place on the Freeski side of things, including eight slopestyle competitions, six big air, two halfpipe, three rail events - the first freeski FIS Rails competitions to take place at the European Cup level.
For Snowboard Park & Pipe, the 2024/25 EC season was even bigger, with 22 competitions taking place including seven slopestyle, six big air, three halfpipe, and six rail events.
The 2024/25 season finale in Corvatsch highlighted the ever growing level of participation in European Cup competitions, with over 100 male and 30 female riders competing in snowboard slopestyle alone - including big names such as Mark McMorris (CAN), Jake Canter (USA), and Rocco Jamieson (AUS). The depth of talent and the global diversity of the field gave the Corvatsch finals the feel of a World Cup stop, underlining the European Cup’s role as a key development platform in the freestyle circuit.
EUROPEAN CUP FREESKI 2024/25
Leading the way on the women’s slopestyle & big air side of things for the 2024/25 European Cup season and earning her personal quota spot for the 2025/26 FIS Freeski World Cup tour was Italy’s Maria Gasslitter, who had a dominant campaign to finish more than 260 points above her nearest rival.
In 12 EC starts this past season, 18-year-old Gasslitter only missed the podium once, racking up six wins and five runner-up results in the those 11 podiums. And, with victories in five out of six slopestyle starts, Gasslitter, has shown she should be a force to be reckoned with on next winter’s World Cup tour and into her home Olympic Winter Games at Milano-Cortina 2026.
For the men it was Switzerland’s Fadri Rhyner capping off a big 2024/25 with a slopestyle win at the season-ender on home soil in Corvatsch to take the slopestyle & big air crown and punch his ticket to full-time duties next World Cup season.
Already with seven World Cup starts to his name, Rhyner’s four victories and seven total podiums in 13 EC starts this past season show that the 20-year-old is more than ready to step up to a full World Cup calendar as part of the talented Swiss Freeski team in 2025/26.
With only two freeski halfpipe competitions taking place on the 2024/25 European Cup, no overall winners could awarded.
FULL 2024/25 EUROPEAN CUP CALENDAR AND RESULTS
EUROPEAN CUP SNOWBOARD PARK & PIPE 2024/25
Three successful halfpipe competitions on the Snowboard Park & Pipe side of the European Cup in 2024/25 meant two deserving riders have earned their personal spots for the the 2025/26 World Cup season, with 18-year-olds Anne Hendrich of Germany and New Zealand’s Campbell Melville Ives finishing the season atop the EC pipe rankings.
With a second place at the European Cup Premium event in Laax, a win in Kitzsteinhorn, and an eighth at the EC finale in Corvatsch, Hendrich was able to finish just two points ahead of 13-year-old Chinese phenom Zhou Yizhu and earn her place on the increasingly impressive German team.
However, Zhou took the wins at both Laax and Corvatsch, and those performances suggest that in the 2026/27 World Cup season, when she is finally old enough to join the big tour, we may be looking at the dawning of a new era in halfpipe snowboarding. Watch this space.
Melville Ives, meanwhile, actually finished the season tied with Hendrich’s German teammate Christoph Lechner at 220 points apiece. However, Melville Ives’ victory at the season finale in Corvatsch would prove to be the tiebreaker, giving the New Zealander his second-straight European Cup title.
For the Snowboard Park & Pipe slopestyle & big air EC women’s rankings it was 14-year-old Belgian Sky Remans making her mark in just her second season of international competition. Remans was able to lock down a victory and a runner-up finish in both big air and slopestyle this past season, and looks ready to make some noise in her World Cup debut in 2025/26.
For the men, top spot on slopestlye & big air season belonged to Julien Merken of France, who returned to competition strong after missing all of the 2023/24 campaign due to injury. With two victories, a runner up, and a handful of top-10s, Merken has guaranteed his World Cup spot for next season, where he’ll join an increasingly impressive French team that includes Roman Allemand and Enzo Valax.
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